Giving You the Warm Shoulder
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: The lands north of Prox were cold by anyone's standards, but with the element of fire being overshadowed by the other three, the temperatures were taken to the extreme. Temperatures that Jenna had trouble coping with...bar a scarf that was.


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**Giving You the Warm Shoulder**

The lands north of Prox were cold.

That wasn't to say that Prox itself wasn't cold. It was. More cold than even Imil or Tunundria. But Prox was the type of cold where if things became even more cold, then your mind ended up being cold in regards to finding a better word to describe how cold things actually were.

"Achoo!"

And Garet coming down with a cold wasn't helping matters either.

All in all though, Jenna didn't think she could really blame him. Fire was the unlucky element right now, both in regards to Mars Lighthouse being the last of the four elemental lighthouses to be lit, and all adepts who wielded its element. Even summoning a fireball out here was proving to be next to impossible, and even if she'd gone the whole ten yards and used enough psynergy to conjure up such a flame, it would have probably done her more harm than good in the long run.

_Cold..._was all the teen's mind said. _Cold...cold...chilly...oh...wait...freezing...cold...freezing...freezing..._

So it _was _possible to think of another word than cold. The wonders of language...and temperature drops...and cold...and wind...and snow...and cold...

"Jenna? You okay?"

And the wonders of hearing a friend's voice.

The fire adept glanced up at the figure besides her, unrecognisable as Isaac in all regards bar his voice, cutting through the wind as his sword would through a foe. All in all, it was hard to recognise anyone by their facial appearance, given the fur coats that the party had been given in Prox to make the trek to Mars Lighthouse easier. But his voice, not to mention his yellow scarf hanging out from under the furs...there was no mistaking him.

"Jenna? You okay?" Isaac repeated.

"Fine..." the fire adept murmured. "Just...cold..."

"That's a given..." the Venus adept responded. "What else?"

The conversation could have undergone a nasty turn at that point. Neither Isaac nor Garet seemed to be too aggravated as to how Felix and his sister had essentially been their enemies until Jupiter Lighthouse, but Jenna knew well enough how emotions could be hidden. Felix had kept his own closed for months, right up until revealing the truth about alchemy in Lemuria. So while Isaac could appear civil, it remained to be seen what he truly felt.

It also remained to be seen why he'd taken off one of his gloves and was feeling her forehead.

"You're not cold..." Isaac murmured. "You're freezing..."

"Freezing..." Jenna murmured through chattering teeth. "That's the new given..."

Well, there was nothing for it anyway. It would cost more time and energy than the group could afford to get more winter clothing, and since freezing was the standard nature of existence right now, Jenna couldn't...didn't...expect preferential treatment.

"I'll be fine..." the fire adept murmured. "We're all in this together, right?"

Isaac nodded. "Right."

"Right...right...hey, are we headed to the left?"

They weren't. They were on course-walking through blizzards could be hell, but they at least had Mars Lighthouse as a point of reference. They...

"Here..."

Jenna blinked, unable to see clearly through the snow. Sound rather than sight was becoming her primary sense right now, so she didn't know what Isaac was doing until yellow fabric started being tied around her.

"Isaac...your scarf..."

"You need it more..." the earth adept said firmly as he finished the knot. "It's not much...but it's the least I can do."

Jenna remained silent as she caught sight of her friend through the sheets of ice. He looked...naked, somehow, without the scarf. It seemed silly, but...well, no more silly than Jenna taking his outstretched arm and closing in by his body.

_Body heat. Nothing more, nothing less...of course..._

Silently, the two continued to trudge towards the lighthouse, certain words unspoken at this point.

But at least it didn't seem so cold anymore.


End file.
